Bracketology: UH a consensus No. 3 seed in NCAA Tournament

Tulane center Buay Koka (13) celebrates a score against Tulane in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in New Orleans, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019. Houston won, 85-50. (AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)

Photo: Matthew Hinton/Associated Press

How high can the Cougars climb?

With less than a month until Selection Sunday, the University of Houston is a consensus No. 3 seed, among the major NCAA Tournament projections, and could open the postseason close to home in Tulsa, Okla.

With five regular season games left and the American Athletic Conference tournament, the Cougars still have a chance for a No. 2 seed.

But what about one of the four region No. 1s?

Run the table - which would be a difficult task with likely two more games against dangerous Cincinnati, including on the road March 10 - and UH would be 33-1 heading into the NCAA Tournament.

That type of resúme would be tough for the selection committee to overlook.

A one-loss Houston on Selection Sunday would be "very, very hard to keep off the 1-line," CBS Sports analyst Matt Norlander said Monday.

UH is currently No. 4 in the NET rankings - which replaced RPI this year as the metric used by the selection committee - and 14-1 in Quadrant 1 and 2 games.

Asked if the Cougars could be a threat in March, Norlander added: "They can win the national championship."

Joseph Duarte has been a sports reporter for the Houston Chronicle since August 1996. He currently covers college athletics, focusing on the University of Houston. Previously, he wrote about the Houston Astros from 1998-2002, Houston Texans from 2002-05 and the Texas Longhorns from 2005-09. He came to the Houston Chronicle as part of an internship through the Sports Journalism Institute in 1995.